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The crackdown adds a dramatic element to the already tense fight over the fate of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.
Because new voting laws are likely to increase the number of people who have to cast provisional ballots in key states, tight races for Congress, governor and local offices could be stuck in limbo while election officials scrutinize ballots.
The tax-free status of municipal bonds is under attack. If eliminated, borrowing could get more expensive for states and localities.
Medicaid has tripled as a share of federal outlays to state and local governments since 1980.
Could the recent upswing in Obama's poll numbers get him the 270 votes he needs to win re-election?
Thanks partly to greatly expanded rehabilitation and treatment programs, Texas sent 11 percent fewer ex-convicts back to prison in recent years a significant drop in recidivism that is being replicated across the country, according to a new study.
Arkansas Gov. Beebe's plan sounds like other cost-saving alternatives to fee-for-service, but there's one big difference: It teams private insurers with Medicaid.
After years of steadfast support for the death penalty, California voters are now divided over whether to repeal capital punishment through a measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, a new poll has found.
Minnesota may well be the only state even attempting to bring performance measurement to local government, according to experts.
Department of Child Services Director James W. Payne resigned in the wake of an Indianapolis Star investigation that raised ethical questions about his personal role in a child neglect case involving his own family.
A federal judge refused to halt Florida's plan to cut the number of early voting days from 14 days to eight days, saying there was not enough proof to show that the change would harm black Americans' right to vote.
The Michigan Department of Human Services will require children ages 6-15 to attend school full time to keep their family eligible for cash benefits.
One of the four Republican state senators who voted for same-sex marriage claimed victory in a close primary against an opponent critical of his vote, while another of the four appeared increasingly certain to lose his party’s nomination over the issue.
All the proposals represent a big departure from the city’s 23-year-old system, which is originally designed to comply with court-ordered desegregation, of assigning students to schools.
Over the past few years, even as Republicans have led efforts to thwart unions, lawmakers previously considered solid supporters of teachers’ unions have tangled with them over a national education agenda that includes new performance evaluations based partly on test scores, the overhaul of tenure and the expansion of charter schools.
A nonprofit is working to create a real-time map of air quality in U.S. cities that will be available to the public.
Young, old divide over Minnesota's marriage amendment The two campaigns locked in Minnesota's intensifying marriage amendment fight are wrestling with a glaring dividing line more stubborn than Democrat and Republican: Young versus old. From California to Maine, an overriding thread that stitched together residents across the country is that younger voters tend to oppose the amendments and older voters generally support them.
National reading scores on the SAT college-entrance exam have sunk to their lowest point in 40 years, and the proportion of test takers deemed fully prepared for college remains flat at 43 percent, the test's sponsors announced Monday morning.
22 states have officially endorsed digital textbooks, and the White House has set a deadline of 2017 for all students to use electronic materials
Idaho teachers who earned merit-pay bonuses last year under a controversial school-reform law will get those payments this fall, regardless of the outcome of a Nov. 6 vote on whether to repeal the law.
A New York City pilot program to distribute morning-after pills and other contraceptives to high school students has encountered little resistance from parents since it began early last year.
Laws expanding access to abortions for rural women, improving breast cancer detection and giving women better access to birth control are signed into law.
Despite aa 2003 reform, Wyoming remains the third most burdensome state in which to regain voting rights.
Deep-pocketed marijuana activists are pouring millions of dollars into legalization measures on the ballot in Washington and Colorado, but they are keeping their distance from a similar pot campaign in Oregon.
New figures boost need to approve overhaul, says an aide to Gov. Pat Quinn.
Gov. Christie conditionally vetoed a bill that would have required faster monthly reporting of state finances and expanded the areas covered by the law.
The combined effects of voter roll purges, demands for proof of citizenship and photo identification requirements in several states may hinder at least 10 million Hispanic citizens who seek to vote this fall, civil rights advocates warn in a new report.
A handful of states whose Republican governors oppose President Obama’s health care overhaul are quietly working to have an insurance exchange ready before the deadline next month to create one.
Closing arguments about South Carolina’s voter ID law will cap an extraordinary case that already has seen charges of racism directed at the law’s author as well as federal judges’ open frustration over state officials’ changing stances on how they would enact the law.
State and local government officials from around the country met in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss how we can afford the government we need.
Cities and states are taking a page from the private sector and opening on-site health clinics for public workers.
With 10 offices up for election or reappointment, Governing handicaps the races this fall.
The Education Achievement Authority is the state's new school reform district, created to take over and improve the lowest performing 5 percent of schools.
Even as the troubled legislative scholarship program was on its last legs, state lawmakers continued to make questionable choices and show possible political favoritism in awarding the free college tuition.
After four years of study by the state, the Cuomo administration now says its decision on whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York will have to wait until it conducts a review of the potential public health effects of the controversial natural gas drilling process.
Chicago public school teachers returned to their classrooms but thorny questions remained over how Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the cash-strapped school system will pay for the tentative contract that ended a strike of more than a week.
A Travis County judge temporarily barred Texas election officials from removing thousands of suspected dead people from voting rolls after four living voters complained that they had been improperly identified as "potentially deceased."
The House voted to block the Obama administration's decision to let states waive the current work requirement for welfare recipients. But the change will remain in effect until the Senate approves the resolution, which is not expected to happen.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate said the Medicaid expansion will have financial benefits by covering all the uncompensated care that occurs in hospitals.
One of the biggest barriers to consolidating service delivery is a jurisdiction's fear that it will lose its individual identity. There are ways to deal with that.
By allowing teens as young as 16 to register and having mandatory voting drives in school the state is ahead of its peers.
Oregon has a unique approach to designing its health-care programs: a management system that aims to eliminate silos.
Automatic spending cuts would slash important grants and hurt metro economies, mayors say.
Other states with online registration include Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, New York, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas and Louisiana.
The two ordinances aimed to give the city more tools to hold property owners responsible for abandoned properties and require banks doing business with the city to provide data about their lending, foreclosures and service to minority communities.
Portland's City Council voted 3-0 to oppose coal trains running through town until the Army Corps of Engineers fully evaluates the impacts of exporting coal to Asia through the Northwest.
Denver Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson sued Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, challenging a rule from his office to block ballots from being mailed to inactive voters in city and school board elections.
A report released by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey found that while these instances of prosecutor misconduct were rare, the assistant prosecutors found to have multiple violations never faced discipline by an ethics board or the state Attorney General’s Office.
The yes vote was a victory for Gov. Robert Bentley, who warned that failure of the referendum could have led to "devastating" cuts in General Fund spending.
Nearly 6 million Americans — significantly more than first estimated— will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said.
Authorities say one of the injured was shot by correctional officers.
The Obama administration gave the first formal regulatory approval to the California High-Speed Rail Authority's plan to construct a bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to postpone Texas' congressional elections, rejecting calls from a Hispanic civil-rights group that said the district lines illegally discriminate against racial minorities.
Census Bureau estimates released this morning show income inequality increasing across much of the country. View data for each state with our interactive map.
Panelists at Governing's Cost of Government summit shared their experiences with Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
House Democrats introduced legislation that would essentially nullify many of the state-based voter ID requirements by allowing voters to sign an affidavit attesting to their identity in lieu of showing the mandated documents.
A new study says that 13 states will have adult obesity rates over 60 percent; all 50 states would have rates above 44 percent.
The overwhelming vote by the union's 800 delegates paves the way for CTU's entire membership to approve a contract in the coming weeks that will secure them a double-digit salary increase over the next three years, including raises for cost of living while maintaining other increases for experience and advanced education.
Emergency calls to the Milwaukee County sheriff's office 911 center had to be rerouted to Waukesha County on Tuesday night after the agency's telephone and computer system crashed.
The latest dose of bad news was delivered by Standard & Poor’s, which lowered its credit outlook for New Jersey from stable to negative.
The money will fund programs designed to combat child sexual abuse and help victims around the country.
The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency answered less than 10 percent of more than a million calls to its customer service lines in August, even as the agency gets ready to lay off more of its staff.
SB 1070's "show me your papers" provision officially became law Tuesday, after a U.S. District Court judge lifted an injunction against the section of Arizona's immigration law that requires police officers to check the legal status of people under certain conditions during investigations or traffic stops.
Supt. Judith Lundsten said the move was triggered by a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a single mom who had complained that her daughter had not been able to attend her father-daughter dance.
The Supreme Court told Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson that he must put the voter-ID law on hold if he determines that it will keep voters from casting ballots.
As states and localities strive to rein in employee health-care costs, innovations might become the norm.
State and local leaders say that in order to fix their budgets, they'll need to view citizens and government employees and partners.
A new guide provides tools to help beleaguered local officials keep their communities out of a fiscal nightmare.
Mississippi re-entered a recession earlier this year, state economist Darrin Webb told legislative leaders.
The state Board of Pardons rejected a bid for clemency from a convicted murderer who is scheduled to become the first person executed by Pennsylvania since 1999.
Democrat Steve Bullock has pulled ahead in the race to be Montana's next Governor. He's at 44 percent to 39 percent for Republican opponent Rick Hill. The candidates were tied at 39 percent on Public Policy Polling's last poll of the contest in the spring.
Severe abuse cases are being miscategorized as lesser offenses, and opportunities to intervene to protect children are being lost, said Jeff Bledsoe, sheriff of Dickson County.
Republican state treasurer hopeful Sharon Hanek is one of nine candidates for legislative, judicial or statewide office who got enough votes as write-ins in the August primary to move on to the November general election.
Three University of Minnesota researchers have received a $600,000 federal grant to pursue technology that could reduce pollution caused by hydro-fracking, the powerful but controversial technology for producing oil and natural gas.
Tennessee is launching a new college-savings plan, replacing a previous one that was scuttled after drawing little interest and poor reviews.
More than 60,000 North Carolina teenagers will be eligible to vote this November because of a state law allowing people to pre-register as young as 16 years old.
The ordinance, passed a year ago by City Council, is intended to control crime in a city that is ranked among the most dangerous in the nation.
Outreach to television producers is part of the marketing plan adopted by California's insurance exchange. California's exchange is also considering a reality show to boost enrollment.
The top Republican tax writers are calling on the New York attorney general to cease an investigation into the secret financial records of close to two dozen tax-exempt groups that have been funneling millions of dollars into this year’s election.
The White House has ruled that young immigrants who will be allowed to stay in the United States as part of a new federal policy will not be eligible for health insurance coverage under President Obama’s health care overhaul.
The lab’s director was fired and her supervisor resigned last week amid allegations that a chemist at the lab, identified as Annie Dookhan, mishandled drug samples by altering the weight of the drugs, not calibrating machines correctly, and manipulating samples so that they would test as drugs when they were not.
Public universities that keep tuition rates down are being rewarded with extra state aid.
Is the path to excellence paved by continuous improvement, transformation or both?
School district is being inundated with requests for documents by thousands of illegal immigrants seeking to apply for Obama's 'deferred action' program.
Mayor Rahm has maintained for over a week that the two major sticking points in negotiations — evaluations and the ability to recall teachers who have been laid off — are not legal grounds for a work stoppage.
In recent years, the integrity of the Police Department’s crime statistics has been questioned as accounts emerge by officers who say they are being pressured by their bosses to reduce the number of felony incidents reported.
Over the last few years, many states have passed voter identification laws, and many of those are being challenged in court. Now, a network of conservative groups is waging an aggressive campaign on the ground.
Many Florida school districts have no way to know whether students at the nation's largest online school are actually being taught by properly certified teachers.
A central part of Alabama’s immigration law has become such a thorny problem for this town that the police chief has declared he will no longer enforce it.
Earlier this year, the state Legislature and Gov. Rick Snyder put in place a budget that set aside more than $9 million to reward public universities that kept tuition increases under 4.1 percent. All 15 of Michigan's public universities did that.
Two weeks after a federal judge rejected strict limits on voter-registration drives, voting-rights groups that virtually stopped registering voters in Florida for a year are scrambling to get people there registered for the Nov. 6 election.
One state that is leading the way in building bottom-up solutions is Oregon, which is providing a roadmap on issues from health care to infrastructure to a "clean" economy.
Which states have the most local governments or special districts?
The Gambling Bait and Switch, Surprising Workforce Stats, and Untracked Spending on Juvenile Justice
Plus: The unpredictable costs of trauma care, and more management news
Engineers say failure to maintain and expand facilities will make American goods more expensive.
A federal court has thrown out the LePage administration's lawsuit that sought to force federal health officials to expedite the approval of Maine's request to make about $20 million in cuts to its Medicaid program.
The justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court peppered attorneys arguing the voter ID dispute with questions as they considered a request to stop the law before the November elections.
The district and union continue to haggle over how teachers will be evaluated and a framework for recalling teachers who've been laid off because of school closings, consolidations and turnarounds.
The Portland Police Bureau has engaged in a pattern of excessive force that violates federal law and the U.S. Constitution involving people with mental illness, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Although many educators believe the step is needed, no one has yet figured how to make that happen.
Obese people are not likely to heed public service announcements that make them feel shame, a survey finds.
The New York City Board of Health passed a regulation that will require consent from parents before an infant can have a form of Jewish ritual circumcision, in which the circumciser uses his mouth to remove blood from the incision.
New security cameras are popping up in Prince George's County to watch speed cams after several instances of vandalism.
Two Republican state senators who provided pivotal votes to legalize same-sex marriage last year fought opponents to a standstill in primary races so close that they will be decided only after absentee ballots are counted.
A community just outside the city offers homeless people a paycheck and place to live in exchange for work on a sustainable urban farm.
As funding from Washington makes its way to the service-delivery level, it follows a complex path. We need a better understanding of where it goes and how it's used.
Governing caught up with the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association at last week's convention in Charlotte, N.C.
An offshoot of the state Medicaid program lets individuals control their own budget for assistance they need to stay employed.
A look at past, present and future issues that have been swept under the fiscal rug.
New data from the Census Bureau shows household incomes dropped in most states last year.
The state finished the budget year June 30 with a $101.9 million surplus.
The Missouri Legislature has voted to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a bill that would allow employers to opt out of covering contraceptives in health insurance policies for religious reasons.
A union for state workers is racing to sue Florida after lawmakers cleared the way to privatize health care in prisons.
Maryland’s tolling agency is investigating whether it can publicize the names of the worst toll scofflaws in a “Hall of Shame” and resume suspending the vehicle registrations of repeat offenders.
If Democrat Maggie Hassan loses the New Hampshire governor's race this fall, Democrats will be left without a female governor for the first time in 17 years.
Facebook’s efforts to encourage users to vote drove more than 300,000 voters across the U.S. to the polls in November 2010, according to a new study.
Some of the 207 registered voters kicked off the rolls had previously admitted they weren’t U.S. citizens, but most were found through a federal immigration database.
"Nobody knows" how many schools will be closed or consolidated, Rahm Emanuel said, a day after sources told the Tribune that the plan being considered calls for shuttering 80 to 120 sparsely populated and underperforming public schools.
Young undocumented immigrants who receive work permits through President Barack Obama's deferred-action program will be eligible to pay lower in-state tuition, Maricopa Community Colleges officials said.
Gov. John Hickenlooper said he opposes Amendment 64, a November ballot measure that would legalize limited possession of marijuana for adults in Colorado.
The vote ends the city's status as the only major U.S. city that hasn't approved fluoridation.
Now that he's gotten major initiatives under way to change Oregon's health care and education systems, Gov. John Kitzhaber is putting his energy into another potential pick-breaker: restructuring the state's volatile taxes.
A new report on city finances says local governments are still struggling and may continue to do so for years.
Governing sat down with two of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee's leaders at the DNC last week.
The state, which has the most governments per capita, represents one of the nation's last remaining systems of hyper-local governance.
Washington state's transportation agency provided info to lawmakers and the public on what it's doing. It's paying off big-time.
The mayor's chief of staff describes how the city's aggressive pursuit of citizen-friendly tools aims to increase civic participation.
For the first time, Los Angeles public school principals will be evaluated under a new system that includes student achievement as one measure of administrators' effectiveness.
States' online insurance marketplaces must meet federal technology standards, but they have leeway in how they do that.
A tentative contract agreement reached with Miami’s police union would generate $11.5 million in savings for the cash-strapped city, and signals an important step forward in Miami’s quest to balance its budget by the end of the month.
The move will erase some of the price advantage Amazon enjoys over brick-and-mortar stores. But it will allow Amazon to blanket the state with distribution centers.
Three weeks ago someone corrupted the Web portal for Utah’s Health Exchange, a virtual marketplace where small business employers and employees can shop for health insurance and obtain price quotes.
Colorado's key Medicaid-reform effort — matching thousands of state-supported patients to "medical homes" and careful case management — is showing promising savings.
A status update on a handful of those promises that were attached to the agreement signed on April 4.
In West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's first television ad, a 30-second spot titled “Coal Town,” Tomblin frames his efforts as a fight against the White House.
The money collected will be distributed later this year, with about 60 percent going to counties and municipalities in the gas drilling region and the remainder going toward environmental projects, natural gas use incentives and other statewide programs.
The Environmental Protection Agency will begin digging up dangerous lead contamination this month around a dozen homes in New Jersey, part of one of the largest state efforts yet to re-examine health risks posed by soil near hundreds of old factory locations identified by a USA TODAY investigation.
In many school districts around the country, particularly those in wealthier areas, taxpayers are increasingly vigilant about how their dollars are spent and they're unwilling to pay for students whose families may be tricking the system to get a better education.
A new model for delivering medical care, one promoted by the federal health care law, holds promise for slowing the cost of treating the sickest, most expensive patients, according to a new study.
FAMU's legal team contends that the school should not be blamed when the young man died doing something he knew was against state law and university policy.
Two New York state social services directors found a way to help clients even in the midst of a natural disaster.
But black belts, "Lean" t-shirts and TQM posters are forever. Well, not really.
A change in union leadership preceded Chicago's teacher strike, unlike other cities where labor disputes simmer.
Whether voters make it the third state to approve physician-assisted suicide could have national implications.
The cards, under study now, would provide a form of identification for those without driver's licenses and could be used to open bank accounts, transfer funds and access cash.
Experts discuss the viability of telehealth in light of a growing shortage of primary care physicians and increased demand for medical care.
The law, a model for federal reform, increased insurance coverage and minimally impacted business profits.
The district plans to borrow $300 million to finance the current fiscal year and part of the next one, slash salaries by 26 percent over a five-year period, and close schools that "are underutilized and in poor condition."
Teacher union leaders in Wisconsin connected the Chicago teachers strike to Wisconsin's collective bargaining battle that erupted in Madison a year and a half ago.
